“As true as thunder crashes, Itty Bitty Kitty,” Cat King bellowed, “you will be safe with me tonight.”
Author: King Simon
My Morning Jacket Okonokos—Live Concert DVD [ATO Records]
Rating: 7.0
I have to admit, the first time I heard about My Morning Jacket was in an article about miserably-failed digital rights management technology. It was December of 2005 and Sony Corporation’s BMG business unit was learning that the public does not like evasive technology secretly landing on their computers and opening up their most private files to hackers. BMG had used a nasty bit of software on over 10 million CDs to protect the content from illegal copy and file sharing. However, it all backfired when consumers learned the software was being installed without permission and opened numerous backdoors into their computers where all sorts of ne’erdowells could snoop around undetected. The CDs using this technology came from some big-name bands like Santana, Alicia Keys and Maroon 5. But another name popped up that caused me some confusion; who the hell was My Morning Jacket?
MSTRKRFT The Looks [Last Gang Records]
Rating: 8.0
A well-endowed disco ball. An orange leather dentist’s chair. Plenty of lip gloss. A non-stop avalanche of strawberry milkshake. Several well-cleavaged business suited babes. No, this is not a weekend at Britney’s, this is the video that sets the stage for the duo that is MSTRKRFT.
the bird and the bee again and again and again and again [Blue Note]
I tried. Really, I did. I wanted to like this EP from Los Angeles-based, “the bird and the bee” (lower case, just like e.e. cummings would have wanted it) but to use the vocalist’s own words, I kept feeling like they were, “…working up to something but (they gave) me almost nothing.”
Teddybears Soft Machine [Big Beat/Atlantic]
Darwin was right and the Teddybears are proof positive. Born over 15 years ago as neo-jazz rockers who favored punk, the Teddybears mutated, grew, shrank and transformed to become the Euro-electronica band we have today. Along the way they picked up enormous bear heads, a better-than-cult following and the attention of several significant international artists who jumped at the chance to contribute to the Bears’ mission.